Beyond The Vortex
by xXBalorBabeXx
Summary: Things between them escalated to the point of no return... strange dreams start disrupting Amanda's sleep but are they just dreams? (Co-written with Cry-Of-A-Warp-Engine)
1. As Always, Get The Tables

Bubba Ray knew that blood on a table was a bad sign and turned to Amanda, who was on the ground, hands over her mouth and nose as D-Von tried to help her up to see the extent of the damage.

"Just hold still, kiddo, it's alright." D-Von responded, managing to help Amanda sit up and she lowered her hands, Bubba carefully cradling her face in his hands as she opened her mouth.

"Yeah, the inside of her lower lip is sliced open deep…" Bubba replied, holding a towel to Amanda's mouth.

"What about her nose?" D-Von asked.

"Not bent out of place so I think… hairline fracture… Mandy, don't try to talk, little lady." Bubba explained, picking Amanda up into his arms before he and D-Von stood up and D-Von glaring at Seth before they headed to the backstage area.

Amanda did as her old friend said and didn't say anything so as not to aggravate the pain, even as Seth was following them and shouting.

"Take her and get her as far away from him as you can." D-Von replied as Bubba handed Amanda to Finn, who held onto her and did what was instructed before the multi time tag team champions turned to Seth.

"Have you lost what little sense you had?! You could've cracked that kid's skull!" Bubba yelled after grabbing Seth by his throat before D-Von pulled him off of the younger man.

"He deserves his ass being beaten but not right now!" D-Von responded.

"It was an accident!" Seth replied defensively.

"Yeah maybe so, but it was obviously a happy one to you!" Bubba responded, still ready at any moment to return his hand to where it had been.

"What gave off that impression?!" Seth shouted.

"When was the last time you did anything other than yell at that little girl and get physically violent with her?! No gentleness to her, no affection, just plain old jealousy because she got close to someone else! She opened her heart up again, nothing wrong with that!" D-Von responded, Seth letting his own anger out by flipping a nearby table over.

"She lost all consideration for who was there first! Who dropped all to help her before he even cared, who she'd be _nothing_ without! She just flicked me away like a bug on her skin, well this bug is damn well biting back!" Seth shouted out ragefully.

Bubba grabbed him again but was stopped by John.

"Let an older sibling do what's supposed to be done when the younger one's been harmed." John responded, the two letting him drag Seth out into the parking lot.

In the trainer's office, Amanda's wound was stitched up and she was given Novocaine to help soothe her mouth as Dr. Amann checked the X-Rays of Amanda's nose… she stayed close to Finn, who knew as he held her that the silence from her meant one thing: trauma beyond physical injury.

"This is normal, right, someone going silent after this kind of injury?" Finn asked after Dr. Amann walked back over to them.

"Sometimes… it takes a while for someone to fully process the events that led to their injury." Dr. Amann answered, laminated x-ray printouts in hand.

' _Was Bubba right? Just a hairline fracture?'_ Amanda wrote down on a notepad.

"No need to reset the nose… those stitches will be in for about a week and a half though so keep that mouth guarded." Dr. Amann explained.

' _Which means soft foods and no straws in drinks, right?'_ Amanda wrote.

"Just like after wisdom teeth removal… hey, it'll be okay, you just need to relax for a bit." Dr. Amann responded before letting them leave.

The two headed to the hotel after grabbing their things, Amanda lying down in the bed after getting ready to go to sleep and Finn lying down next to her after closing and locking the door before wrapping his left arm around her waist.

"That fucking asshat!" Amanda said quietly as Finn held her closer to him, Amanda wrapping her arms around him. "Why do guys always go for the face? Do they get pulled aside in high school and taught to do that?" She responded as she started to feel sleepy.

"I suppose down at the core, it's… a thing of pride. A man in his younger days or hyped up mind never wants to even contemplate the idea of being beaten, and if they are they always do their best to cover it up as no big deal, still the man they were. Give them a scratch on the chest or a big bruise on the knee, no big deal, cover it up with different clothes. But you get a big bruise on your face… rarely will a man wear makeup, so how do you cover that up? I suppose the habit just… sticks. It makes your enemy more than beaten, it humiliates them afterwards." Finn responded, his mind of thought getting a bit more carried away than he intended.

"We'll see how he likes it when I bash his face in." Amanda muttered, Finn knowing that she could've easily suffered a concussion or have had another seizure if there was more force in the dropkick.

It wasn't long before both were asleep and Amanda's mind drifted off completely…

 _Amanda didn't normally question things when she first woke up… but looking up when her eyes were fully open, she saw a strange creature watching her and screamed, jumping off of the makeshift bed and hiding under it._

" _Fear not, Cena. I alone intend no harm, nor will any of my kin." The creature said in a deep, mildly croaky voice, his large red eye observing her and arms, including the third small one in his chest, lowered to remove any sign of threat._

 _Amanda emerged from her hiding spot, carefully sitting up… she was still shaking and the Vortigaunt saw the bruises on her face and stitches in her mouth once it looked close enough without terrifying her further._

" _One might question why nature would imperfect us with such a state of misery." The Vortigaunt said, referring to the pain as he raised his third arm, closing his left hand to meet with the central one. Between the two, a green light began to form, before he turned his hand towards Amanda, the light seeming to melt into her mouth and cheeks, pain and stings from the tugging medical threads being quick to fade._

" _I question why I ever trusted Seth to begin with…" Amanda replied._

" _It pays to remember such words as this… failure and mistakes are the greatest teachers of all things." The Vortigaunt responded._

" _They are but… I feel like I've screwed up so many times, I just… I don't know why Finn stays around me through all of it." Amanda said, The Vortigaunt seeing the oversized Balor Club shirt that Amanda had been using for a nightshirt._

" _We serve the same mystery… for a brief time, one of your kind joined us in our world, he brought our king to his grave. And yet, we stand to protect your kind, after such an introduction of our species… we care for the balance of life, much like Balor cares for the balance of yours." The Vortigaunt replied, stepping back a small pace as Amanda reached to her side to look at her phone, trying to find out the time._

 _But she did find countless angry text messages from Seth… and finally did what she had been wanting to do since he started treating her like a traitor and blocked his number. When she looked up, she could've sworn she saw The Vortigaunt smile._

" _A mistake once learnt from, can never be remade." The Vortigaunt said after what Amanda gathered to be a nod of approval, however with such a different skeletal structure within him it was hard to tell what some human equivalents to his motions would be._

 _Amanda finally pulled herself up to her feet, the ground making them feel colder._

" _We can protect you… but you need to rest up now." The Vortigaunt responded._

 _Amanda nodded and climbed back into the bed, eyes closing…_

Amanda opened her eyes halfway and realised that she was hanging onto Finn, who had his arms around her and his left hand rubbing up and down her back.

She looked around, Finn getting her to look back at him.

"It's alright… just a dream." Finn responded, Amanda nodding.

But she didn't realise she was holding her phone.


	2. There's A Limit

Seth growled and slammed his phone down in the hotel bar, downing his whiskey before turning back to Dean.

"I think you've had enough liquor for one night." Dean said.

"She blocked my fucking number!" Seth responded before he saw Aestrid walk over… and Aestrid pulled her right hand back and slapped him.

"Don't act so surprised about it, after the crap that you've pulled and thought you got away with! She tried to grip onto some hope that you were gonna accept her and turn back to who you were, but the guy she thought of as her friend, her brother, was gone from the moment the Shield split, if he were ever there at all!" Aestrid said angrily.

Across the hotel into the lobby, Dianne and Enzo heard the noise.

"Now he's getting what he deserves." Enzo replied, Dianne nodding in agreement.

"You think… she'll be okay, Enzo?" Dianne asked.

"With the help of those closest to her… she'll make it through all this." Enzo answered.

"Everything was fucking perfect and then I was turned into the backstabber because someone in creative had the idea to split The Shield apart!" Seth yelled.

"You drove Mandy so damn crazy that she went to the writers and told them the idea!" Dean shouted, Seth snapping his head towards Dean.

"Repeat that?!" Seth asked through gritted teeth.

"The Shield splitting on screen was Mandy's idea. She thought if we all had some time to stand on our own that we would be alright off screen." Dean explained, Seth grabbing a shot glass and slamming it onto the bar hard enough to break it.

"Well clearly that idea went tits-up from the start." Dianne muttered, making Enzo laugh a bit at her blunt wording.

"Damn, I swear Mandy's humor rubbed off on you." Enzo responded.

"It did… now let's go crash, it's getting late." Dianne said before they headed to the elevator.

Early into the next morning, Amanda opened her eyes and found herself curled up next to Finn with his face buried into the crook of her neck and his arms wrapped around her. She managed to stretch her legs and heard Finn talking incoherently in his sleep as he held onto her.

"You're a clingy one in the morning." Amanda muttered with a tired smile, Finn opening his eyes and lifting his head up to look at her and smiling.

"Can't resist a cuddle." Finn replied, resting his head down again afterwards.

"Especially after how last night was." Amanda responded, her lower lip still swollen and Finn getting up and grabbing some ice from the ice bucket. Once it was in a Ziploc bag, he pressed it to her mouth… Amanda jolted from the sudden shock of the cold, Finn reaching over and brushing his hand against her hair.

But before he could open his mouth, a knock at the door interrupted them. With Amanda holding the ice pack, Finn stood up and walked to the door before unlocking and opening it to let John in.

"You got to him…" Amanda said as she and John hugged, having noticed his bruised and scraped hands after they let go.

"He's done getting away with hurting you, Mandy. From this day on, every hit will be met with a return." John answered.

Amanda nodded and put the ice pack on her nose, John seeing the swollen lip.

"Still numb?" John asked.

"Mostly." Amanda responded.

At the arena for the SmackDown taping after getting ready for the day and eating, Amanda found herself waiting outside Hunter's office. She knocked on the door, Hunter opening it and Liv walking out of it with her eyes narrowed at Amanda before she stormed off.

"Couldn't find another opponent for her for NXT TakeOver Respect, right?" Amanda asked after Hunter guided her into the office and closed the door, the two sitting down.

"She lost it… as for tonight, try to protect yourself as best as you can." Hunter replied.

Amanda nodded… but Hunter could tell that her mind was partially elsewhere.

"Rough night after getting back to the hotel?" Hunter asked.

"I had the strangest dream… I didn't know where I was and there was this creature watching me. Despite how scary he looked, he… he wasn't trying to hurt me." Amanda replied.

"Looks are deceiving… maybe it was a dream with some meaning to your reality." Hunter responded after a moment.

"Maybe…" Amanda said, a knock sounding at the door.

"It's open." Hunter replied, the door opening and Seth walking in with a red mark on his face. "Liv slapped you?" He asked.

"She said that I cost her a match…" Seth muttered, Amanda glancing at her phone and seeing a text from Finn.

' _Talk going okay?'_

' _Was until we were interrupted.'_ Amanda responded, Hunter helping her stand up.

"Go on, we'll talk later." Hunter said, Amanda starting to leave but Seth wouldn't move from the door. "Seth, let her leave. There's not gonna be any more fighting." He replied.

"Get out of my fucking way!" Amanda responded, Seth narrowing his eyes at her.

"No more fighting alright… in front of other eyes." Seth muttered to her threateningly before he almost mockingly politely stepped to one side to let her pass.

"Try and corner me again, I'll rip your dick off and take your balls with it!" Amanda growled, giving Seth a hard shove and leaving as Hunter was trying not to snicker.

"That's funny, huh?" Seth asked sarcastically.

"I think that means not to mess with her anymore." Hunter answered.

"Yeah… no more messing around alright." Seth responded quietly.

"I'm serious, that could've been fatal if her skull had gotten injured!" Hunter replied.

"She's still standing, that's the main thing." Seth responded, his attitude no different than before.

"Doesn't mean she's not hurting." Hunter said.

In the parking garage, Amanda stopped and leaned against the pillar before closing her eyes… she paid no attention to a car stopping near her until the horn blared.

"Stick that horn in your ear!" Amanda responded, Brock chuckling and smiling as he got out of the Equinox.

"Some things never change, especially you on a rough day." Brock replied as he approached her.

"Hey, Brock." Amanda said after opening her eyes, the two hugging for a few seconds.

"No apology from him, right?" Brock asked.

"Right on the money. It's driving me nuts, I thought if I blocked his number that he'd take the fucking hint." Amanda answered as they headed towards the stone steps and sat down. "You don't treat me like Seth does and you've known me since I was 10… I never wanted it to end up like this but he's treating me like a cheating lover." She said before he rested his right hand on her upper back.

"Whatever he thinks he's doing, he clearly isn't thinking about you being happy anymore. I wouldn't make it worth the trouble." Brock replied.

"He ain't worth it… and now I hope there'll be some civility." Amanda responded as they stood up and headed into the arena.

Amanda reached hers and Finn's locker room and pushed the door open, having to jump back when a fight between Finn and Seth spilled into the hallway.

"Stop it this fucking second!" Amanda shouted, pulling Finn off of Seth and checking on Finn. "You need to go to anger management! I try to reclaim a little normalcy and you go picking fistfights?!" She yelled at Seth, whose nose was bleeding.

"Like I said… no more fucking around." Seth responded while wiping the blood from his face.

"You're fucked up in the head. No wonder The Shield split a year and a half ago." Finn replied, carefully moving his right hand around.

"Maybe it was a good thing after all… would've certainly kicked up a storm had we all been like this while there was still a Shield to speak of." Seth responded.

"The hell is going on back here?!" Stephanie asked after reaching them.

"Seth charged in, swung at me and told me that I should let Mandy go! I swung back at him and told him it's none of his business who Mandy hangs around, especially after the injuries he caused last night!" Finn answered.

"As true as that is, swinging at him only drags you down to his level, hitting out simply because you're angry." Stephanie responded.

"Come on, follow me." Amanda said, managing to guide Finn away to diffuse the situation as Stephanie turned to Seth to tell him off… when Finn and Amanda were alone, she swiped a nearby ice pack and pressed it to his hand as he saw that the long day was catching up with her.

"Time for a rest soon, I should think." Finn said as he placed his other hand over hers.

"Soon as we get this taping over with, I'll happily rest." Amanda responded, leaning against him. "Unless you mind me curled up against you." She whispered as his left arm now wrapped around her back.

It wasn't long before her eyes closed… Finn set the ice pack aside, picked her up into his arms and took her into their locker room before lying her on the couch.

' _If only she'd let herself fully relax… but that's not how she is at times.'_ Finn thought as he brushed Amanda's hair back and put his Balor Club jacket over her.


	3. Won't Go Away Easily

_**2/18/15, NXT Taping scheduled to air 4/22/15…**_

" _Bravo, Finn. Everybody's so impressed with Finn Balor, everybody loves Finn Balor. Well you know who doesn't? Me, Tyler Breeze!" Tyler said after appearing on the titantron. "You walk in here and let me assure you, you're nothing more than a flavor of the month… well, in more ways than one, just ask your Demon Mistress. It's time you meet someone who's been dominating NXT since day one. Prince Pretty… see you around, Finn."_

 _The titantron returned to the NXT logo and Finn turned to his right, seeing that Amanda wasn't having much luck keeping her anger controlled, judging from her clenched right fist._

" _Prince Pretty, crashing the party. Tyler Breeze obviously not as impressed with Finn Balor as we are." Tom Phillips said._

 _The backstage area was tense when they reached it and Finn got Amanda to sit down, rubbing his hands along her shoulders and upper arms._

" _Read that part of the script multiple times over… what the fuck is with him, taking cheap insults like that?!" Amanda growled, attempting to stand up but Finn stopped her. "He's either really into his character or he is a narcissistic son of a bitch!" She said as his thumb rubbed back and forth on her right wrist._

" _And you need to calm down before going and finding him… that wasn't right what he did but beating someone senseless backstage won't help." Finn responded, Amanda closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before opening them._

" _Just when I thought this wasn't starting to feel like high school again… it was damn uncalled for." Amanda said quietly before Finn sat down next to her and lightly wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her onto his lap._

" _It damn well was uncalled for… when we find him, he better have a damn good answer as to why." Finn whispered, lightly kissing Amanda on the side of her head._

 _The closer she got to him, the more that tension seem to surface backstage…_

 **Present time…**

Amanda opened her eyes halfway about three hours later and looked up, seeing Finn and Sami.

"Wait, what did she describe this creature as?" Sami asked quietly.

"Rather tall yet back hunched, one big red eye, a third arm in its chest… all sounds like an alien from a 1970s sci-fi to me but I've never doubted her word and I'm not gonna doubt her now." Finn described, repeating along the lines of what Amanda had said to him earlier.

"I'm surprised she didn't wake up screaming… maybe we should tell the physicians here to dial back on the medicine doses." Sami responded.

"Sami, she was in too much pain to talk much last night. She needed her sleep." Finn replied.

Amanda sat up, the two noticing that she was awake and Finn sitting next to her while Sami sat down in a nearby chair.

"Any last minute changes I should know about?" Amanda asked when she saw the script in Sami's hands and the highlighted part concerning the Rusev vs Ryback match that had both Amanda and Kevin on commentary… and Finn resting his hand on her back as Amanda adjusted her black cropped lace bustier top.

"Seems like they want you to start speaking your mind out there." Sami said as he handed over the script to them.

"And hopefully, it goes over well… give or take a few punches." Amanda replied as Finn grabbed the jacket and put it on her.

"You're poking the bear by doing that." Sami responded jokingly.

"A bear would maul me if I poked it, Kevin's just gonna run his mouth." Finn said.

 _ **Rusev vs Ryback…**_

"I don't know… in all honesty, I think Rusev's got something up his sleeve that's gonna shatter Summer's heart." Amanda answered after Jerry asked her for her opinion on Summer proposing to Rusev on Raw.

"Kevin, your thoughts on the whole thing? Is any romantic relationship in this business a strong one or one that's caught your attention?" Bradshaw asked as Amanda absentmindedly played with the collar of the jacket as the match progressed.

"You gonna answer the man's question?" Amanda responded, resting her lace and leather skinny pant clad legs on the table and crossing the right one over the left one.

"I don't think it matters so much about the business as it does about the people. Some of us… change a lot between home and work lives, being almost like two different people is when it fails." Kevin replied after a moment longer.

It wasn't long before Summer tripped up Ryback, Amanda rolling her eyes.

"Gonna take more than that to stop Ryback, that man tears through his opponents like they're paper… and he will get that Intercontinental Championship back, it's just a matter of time. Cheating someone out of what's rightfully theirs will turn and bite you… and I've been waiting to say this for months, the way you won the NXT Championship, Owens, was pure bullshit. Finn is a much better champion, he earned it the right way." Amanda replied, Kevin turning fully to her with the Intercontinental Championship on his right shoulder and completely angered.

"No less of a technique than some of the things everyone else has pulled! You've got no room to talk, you've hardly been an angel yourself!" Kevin responded.

"I didn't stab my best friend in the back and injure his shoulder, Sami did nothing to deserve that!" Amanda replied, Sami turning to Finn when both were watching from the locker room.

"I had a feeling she was still sore about me getting hurt." Sami said quietly.

"I'm not surprised, it was quite bad and shocking at first." Finn replied.

With the match going on, Rusev and Ryback exchanged glances after noticing the tension at the commentators table.

"Tiny's livid." Ryback whispered, Rusev nodding in agreement… and then clamped his right hand over his mouth as a hard slap connected with Kevin's face.

"Tiny's _very_ livid." Rusev responded, briefly pausing to look towards the commentator stand.

"Au moins, je suis brutalement honnête à propos de ce qui s'est passé, Owens, vous venez de rejeter la faute sur quelqu'un qui se trouve à proximité!" Amanda shouted, Summer's mouth hanging open in shock and Kevin yelling back at Amanda in the same language.

"Ça vient de toi, le petit clochard qui est devenu le prochain copain de la chambre de Balor?!" Kevin responded.

"Yeah, that's going too far." Rusev replied before Summer walked over and tried to intervene when Amanda grabbed a kendo stick and whacked Kevin with it repeatedly.

Summer yanked the kendo stick from Amanda, who turned her anger to the blonde as Kevin left.

"Stay out of this, Summer, don't involve yourself in business that don't concern you!" Amanda yelled.

"If we can cut to the backstage area, please do so." Bradshaw said into his headset as Jerry put himself in between the women who were about ready to fight.

Kevin reached the backstage area… and was immediately accosted and thrown at the wall by Finn.

"You just don't know when to stop!" Finn growled.

"She's not fucking worth your attention or protection! You should've left her with Rollins, they would've fucked each other and gotten their anger out of their system!" Kevin yelled, ending up on the wrong end of a punch after that.

"That's your words, not mine! If some useless scum is all she is to you anymore then, well… I'm _proud_ to be the same kind of scum!" Finn responded.

Kevin swung back at him but was stopped by a kendo stick whacking against his wrist and yelled out in pain before he turned and saw Amanda.

"Find another person to abuse, Kevin! I'm fucking fed up with it!" Amanda replied, Kevin storming off… Finn was about to question how Amanda got the kendo stick back but then saw Summer with a black eye before Summer left and Ryback and Rusev walked over to them, Ryback resting his left hand on Amanda's upper back. "Sorry you guys had to see that." She said quietly as her right hand instinctively wrapped around Finn's left one.

"It's okay… that nearly went way too far though." Rusev replied, briefly raising a hand to gesture that he was calm about it.

"It did but Owens should've kept himself controlled as well." Ryback responded, kissing Amanda on the side of her head before he and Rusev left.

"That went a lot better than I thought it would've… and definitely a lot better than the incident at the Performance Centre a few weeks back." Amanda said as she and Finn held each other.


End file.
